UN official: State of Syrian refugee camp 'beyond inhumane'

Screen grab/Amanda Macias/Business Insider BEIRUT (AP) — Palestinian fighters clashed with Islamic State militants in a heavily contested Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital on Monday as a United Nations official described the situation in the embattled camp as "beyond inhumane."

The fighting in Yarmouk began Wednesday after the Islamic State group muscled into the camp, marking the extremists' deepest foray yet into Damascus. The heavy clashes that have raged since then have added yet another layer of misery for up to 18,000 Yarmouk residents who have already endured desperate conditions marked by a lack of basic food, medicine and water.

The deteriorating situation prompted the U.N. Security Council to call an emergency meeting Monday to discuss Yarmouk and receive a closed-door videoconference briefing by the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Pierre Krahenbuhl, who called the humanitarian situation in the camp "completely catastrophic."

The Security Council called for life-saving assistance and safe evacuation for the Palestinians, protection for the refugees, and humanitarian access to the camp — and said it will look into further measures to help achieve this.

The council also condemned "the grave crimes" committed by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra against civilians in Yarmouk, and said their crimes must not go unpunished.

People walk on rubble as others try to put out a fire after what activists said were airstrikes followed by shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, February 9, 2015. REUTERS/ Mohammed Badra

After heavy fighting on Sunday, sporadic clashes broke out on Monday in Yarmouk, according to Hatem al-Dimashqi, an activist based in an area just south of Damascus, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Both al-Dimashqi and the Observatory said Syrian government aircraft have been shelling the camp and dropping barrel bombs since Sunday.

The fighting inside the camp has largely pitted the Islamic State group against Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, a Palestinian faction opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman estimated that the Islamic State group now controls as much as 90 percent of Yarmouk, slowly squeezing out Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis.

Palestinian officials and Syrian activists say the Islamic State militants fighting in Yarmouk were working with rivals from the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front. The two groups have fought bloody battles against each other in other parts of Syria, but appear to be cooperating in the attack on Yarmouk.

Nusra said in a statement it is taking a neutral stance in the camp.

Refugees and rubble in Yarmouk. Reuters

Krahenbuhl, who heads the Palestinian refugee agency known as UNRWA, said the situation in Yarmouk "is more desperate than ever" as the result of the sudden upsurge in fighting by probably half a dozen opposition groups and some groups supporting the Syrian government.

He urged political and religious leaders with influence on the combatants to pressure them to observe international human rights and humanitarian law which requires protection of civilians.

The Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour urged the council to take action to ensure safe passage for the besieged refugees and appealed to all nations to help them relocate to safer areas in Syria or in other countries.

Mansour said about 2,000 of the estimated 18,000 refugees in Yarmouk had made it to safety on their own.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told The Associated Press in Barcelona late Sunday that the agency has not been able to send any food or convoys into the camp since the fighting started.

"That means that there is no food, there is no water and there is very little medicine," he said. "The situation in the camp is beyond inhumane. People are holed up in their houses, there is fighting going on in the streets. There are reports of ... bombardments. This has to stop and civilians must be evacuated."

He said 93 people have been evacuated from the camp so far.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, speaking to reporters in Washington, condemned the Islamic State group's attack in Yarmouk.

Refugees at the besieged Yarmouk camp get in line for food. Reuters

"They've left the population on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe," she said. "We are calling on all parties of the conflict to allow regular, uninterrupted humanitarian access to the population in Yarmouk."

The United Nations says the civilians trapped in Yarmouk include a large number of children. The camp has been under government siege for nearly two years, leading to starvation and illnesses. The camp also has witnessed several rounds of ferocious and deadly fighting between government forces and anti-Assad militants.

"Things were bad and things got worse when the fighting engulfed the camp," Gunness said.

Also on Monday, gunmen kidnapped as many as 300 Kurds late Sunday and early Monday west of the city of Aleppo, pulling them from their vehicles at checkpoints, a Kurdish official and the Observatory said.

All of the captives were released later Monday after authorities in the Kurdish-controlled area of Afrin near the Turkish border freed three Islamic rebel fighters who were arrested last week, according to the Observatory and Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party.

Such tit-for-tat kidnappings have become common in the chaos of Syria's civil war.